ABOUT
“ ITSAZOO Productions has no trouble attracting that elusive group of theatergoers: the 20-somethings.” —Jo Ledingham, The Vancouver CourierITSAZOO Productions is a non-profit incorporated society and registered charity that Thinks Outside the Cage. This means that we have a mandate to:
- Create opportunities for emerging artists, providing new and challenging experiences through paid professional work.
- Inspire other theatre practitioners by producing progressive theatre outside the traditional playhouse setting.
- Present theatre to a younger and more diverse audience by making innovative and unparalleled productions affordable to a wide demographic.
- Produce new Canadian plays and adaptations that entertain and inspire theatre practitioners and audiences alike.
2004
- ITSAZOO is founded!
- Produces The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee, as part of the Director's Festival at the University College of the Fraser Valley.
- In a co-production with Sour Grapes, produces Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which fairies lead audience members through The Finnerty Gardens at the University of Victoria.
2005
- Returns to The Finnerty Gardens with a new adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, a promenade production wherein audience members follow Alice through Wonderland.
2006
- Participates in the 2006 Victoria Fringe Festival with Death of a Clown, wriiten by Playwright-in-Residence Sebastien Archibald
- Death of a Clown is chosen as a finalist in Theatre BC’s Canadian National Playwriting Competition and is showcased in Theatre BC’s New Play Festival.
2007
- Produces Grimm Tales, in which Hansel and Gretel lead audience members on a walking tour of the Enchanted Forest, marking the first time Mount Douglas Park is used as a theatre venue.
- Grimm Tales is awarded Best New Play for Victoria's 2007 Critic’s Choice Awards and Monday Magazine’s ‘M’ Awards.
- Relocates performance base from Victoria to Vancouver with intent to engage in the Vancouver theatre community while continuing to produce theatre in Victoria.
2008
- Stages Casualties of Progress, an original play by Sebastien Archibald, at PAL Vancouver.
- Remounts the critically acclaimed production of Grimm Tales at Mount Douglas Park in July, and at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Park in August 2008, marking the first time Queen Elizabeth Park is used as a theatre venue.
- Produces Four Course Meal, a festival of new works that features four new plays written by emerging artists from across the country.
- Is named Vancouver’s Favourite New Company in The Westender’s review of 2008.
2009
- Stages a newly rewritten and reworked version of Death of a Clown at the PAL Theatre in Vancouver.
- Produces The Zoo Story by Edward Albee in Mount Douglas Park in Victoria and Stanley Park in Vancouver.
- ITSAZOO continues to cultivate relationships with other Vancouver Arts associations. The company remains committed to organizing events and producing compelling theatre projects with the aim to expand its involvement in the theatre community and to encourage the individual growth of the artists involved.
Death of a Clown
Sebastien Archibald & Trevor Hinton
Sebastien Archibald & Trevor Hinton
Grimm Tales 2007
Barb Hall & Duncan Paterson
Barb Hall & Duncan Paterson
Four Course Meal—Milmish
Leslie Brownlee & Mack Gordon
Leslie Brownlee & Mack Gordon
The Zoo Story ‘09 — Colby Wilson
